How the News is Made: an Introduction to Journalism CEXTN012-202660

How the News is Made: an Introduction to Journalism

6/16-7/14/2026, Tuesdays, 6:00-9:00pm

Location: Mission Center, Room 217

Instructor: Molly Oleson

This workshop will introduce students to five different aspects of journalism: Generating story ideas, reporting and pitching; news writing; feature writing; copy editing; and multimedia storytelling. Each session will be focused on one of these aspects and will include a lecture, examples of published work and class discussions. Depending on the desires of the students, we may also break into groups to do short writing and editing exercises. Students can expect an overview of what goes into writing, editing, producing and publishing journalistic stories, and by the end of the workshop, they should feel comfortable pursuing one or more aspects of journalism that they are drawn to. They will learn how to come up with great story ideas, how to research and report stories, how to begin writing both news and feature stories, how to copy edit stories and how to begin to produce multimedia stories. In an age in which AI has permeated the media landscape and journalistic freedoms are being threatened, it's crucial that students learn the fundamentals and importance of independent, fact-based journalism.

Instructor Bio: Molly Oleson is a San Francisco-based print and multimedia journalist, editor, photographer and illustrator. She holds a B.F.A. in painting from Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, and a master’s degree in journalism from U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. Oleson has worked as an editor, writer, photographer and illustrator for various Bay Area publications and has produced work for national publications. She currently works as a freelance journalist and teaches classes in CCSF's journalism department.

Materials list: The Associated Press Stylebook (57th Edition/2024-2026); This book can be found at the CCSF bookstore or on Amazon. Technology requirements: a laptop or other device for accessing the internet to be brought to each session for reading session materials.

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